Life on the Team
by Black-Rose Marley
Summary: Oliver moves into the basement of the family of one of his teammates when he joins the Puddlemere United team after Hogwarts. His teammate is a snarky, sarcastic mute who hides a dark past. Will he ever find out what it is, or does she trust him enough for that? OWOC.
1. Chapter 1

Shannon Samuels flitted about her basement, cleaning what was already clean, and straightening what didn't need to be straightened. The reason for this was simple. She had been sent down into the basement to get it ready for their house guest, and if she stayed down here long enough, she wouldn't be put to work.

See, a few months ago, after Shannon had finished school, she had tried out and made the Puddlemere United Quidditch team as a Chaser. A few weeks ago, the captain of the team, Johnny Clark, had informed the entire team and their families, should they still live with them, as seventeen year old Shannon did, that they were getting a new team member who lived too far away from the team and needed a place to stay. Shannon's parents had loved the idea of letting him or her stay with them, despite Shannon's reserves. So, because of this, she was staying out of the way as the family bustled about the house getting it ready for the new housemate.

Shannon heard the doorbell ring a few minutes later, and she heard her step-father, Joseph, call down the stairs, "Are you done cleaning down there yet?"

She ran halfway up the stairs, nodded to her step-dad, and came the rest of the way up. Then she moved past him into the entryway where the new player was standing. "I am Analisse," Evan's mother said, "and that is my husband Joseph, and my daughter Shannon," she added when she saw her come upstairs.

"Oliver Wood," the bloke said. He held out his hand for Shannon to shake, which she did, smiling. He smiled back. "You would be my teammate?" She nodded.

"I'll take your things down to the basement," Joseph said. "You'll be staying in our little room down in the basement, since we don't have an extra room upstairs." Joseph carried all Oliver's bags downstairs at once, and then Analisse spoke up.

"We have to insist on a few rules be taken into account," she said. "First of all, you do not have to stay holed up in the basement; you are allowed up here and you may help yourself to anything in the kitchen, which I know is a risk with a sports player; after all, we have two already in this house."

"Two?" Oliver asked.

"My husband's son, Jay, plays hockey. My husband is a muggle, and so is Jay, so we have to insist magic be kept to a minimum, since, though they know about it, they don't particularly like it."

"I understand," Oliver replied.

"A bit of an unspoken rule is that if you mess with Jay's X-Box, which is a video game console, he will be extremely pissed at you. Try as we might, we can't get him away from it." Oliver nodded, though he didn't understand the concept of the video game thing. He'd have to ask Shannon about it later. "One more rule, and I'm sure you can understand this one, is that you are not allowed upstairs, like, to the second story of our house, unless given explicit, spoken permission."

"I understand," he replied.

"Good," Analisse said happily. "Now, Joseph and I both work, and Jay is always at his friend's house during the weekdays—we sort of have an unspoken agreement that he is to be there because he's not old enough yet to stay by himself; he's only ten—so you and Shannon will be alone in the house most days, unless she leaves, which is likely." Analisse seemed to tense at this, and Shannon shot her mother a look. "Well, anyway, I hope you're happy here!" she finished cheerily.

"Thank you, Mrs. Smyth," Oliver replied.

"Technically, it's Samuels-Smyth, which is a mouthful, so please just call me Ana," she replied.

"Samuels-Smyth?" Oliver questioned.

"My name when I was first married to Shannon's father was Samuels, but now I'm married to Joseph Smyth," she explained, and Shannon nodded as if to confirm, yes, she has a step-father.

"You don't talk much, do you, Shannon?" Oliver asked. Shannon shook her head. She pointed to herself, then put a finger to her lips. "You don't talk at all?" Oliver asked, understanding what she was telling him.

"Funny you can understand what she's trying to tell you at all; Joseph and I have to ask her to write it down, which she does with magic, much to Joseph's frustration," Ana said. Shannon pulled out her wand, summoned a notebook, and magically wrote, 'I do not appreciate being spoken of as if I am not presently in the room.' "Sorry, Shannon," Ana said to her daughter. Shannon took the notebook, which was floating in midair, and then magically sent it up the stairs presumably to her room. "You're lucky your father—step-father isn't up here; he'd ground you for that." Shannon rolled her eyes. "Whatever," her mother said exasperated. "Help me with supper?" she asked, and Shannon silently followed her mother into the kitchen. Oliver went down to the basement, for lack of anything better to do.

"So," Ana began awkwardly, "when's your first practice with the entire team?" she asked as they worked on making the spaghetti for dinner. "Er…Saturday?"

Shannon shook her head, crossed two fingers as if to say 'plus,' then held one finger up.

"Sunday," her mother concluded, understanding what her daughter was saying for once. Shannon nodded just to confirm, and the two worked in silence once more. The silence was fine for Shannon, but it drove her mother mad to think of what caused Shannon's vow never to speak again.

Just then, the front door opened, and Jay walked in. he was a short and, in Shannon's expert opinion, annoying ten year old with sandy blond, curly hair that matched his father's and boring brown eyes. Shannon had prided herself with her appearance, having silky black, straight hair that hung halfway down her back with a dark blue streak for team spirit, and bright green eyes that one could see sitting in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. These eyes were usually squinted competitively when she was playing, though, so they usually could not be seen. Still, they were a sight for any member of the opposite gender, and even a few members of the same one.

"Mom! You were supposed to pick me up from Mikey's!" Jay whined.

"No, her mother and I agreed she would drop you off here," Ana protested.

"That's not what she said. She said you should have been there an hour ago, and she was mad. So she dropped me off and told me I couldn't go back there if you were going to leave me there."

"I wasn't intending on leaving you there," Ana insisted. "She told me she would drop you off today, because she knew we'd be busy getting the house ready for our guest."

"Hey by the way, where is this mystery weird magic sport player?" Jay asked.

"Basement," Ana replied. "I'll call Charlotte tonight and work this disagreement out." But Jay was gone before Ana even got her sentence out, running down into the basement to meet the new house member. She sighed and turned to Shannon, who she knew would listen to her. "How's it coming?" she asked, referring to the food. Shannon gave her mother a thumbs-up. "I'll go call Charlotte now," her mother said. She took the phone and left the room.

Joseph came up the stairs then followed by Jay and finally Oliver. "Is supper almost ready?" he asked. Shannon nodded. "Good." He opened the fridge and took out a beer. Shannon gave him a look behind his back as if to say, "Really?" Oliver smirked.

"Dad! Shannon gave you a dirty look behind your back!" Jay tattled.

"Shannon!" Joseph snapped. Shannon shook her head frantically.

"She didn't," Oliver spoke up. "He's lying."

"I am not, weird magic person!" Jay said.

"You, Jay, need to learn to stop your lying," Joseph said sternly to his son.

"I'm not the liar here!"

"I believe him. He seems like an honest man," Joseph said, referring to Oliver. Shannon smiled as if to say, "Thank you," and Oliver smiled back. Maybe this bloke was worth a shot, Shannon thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Why does no one review any of my stories? It's not like they're terrible. No one has alerted or favorited this either. Whyyyyyyyyy?**

"Shannon!" Ana called to her daughter after dinner. Shannon ran down the stairs to the back room where her parents were. "Listen, Shannon, Charlotte and I had some disagreements on what should be done about Jay, so until further notice, you have to watch him during the day." Shannon was already shaking her head. She summoned her notebook and wrote magically, 'What about Quidditch practice?'

"Does Johnny really—" But Shannon was already nodding her head before she even got the words out.

"Then what do you propose we do with Jay?" Joseph asked.

'Nicole next door?' Shannon wrote.

"Or, Molly!" Joseph said. "She lives right across the street and she isn't as expensive and…annoying as Nicole."

'As long as I don't have to see her,' Shannon wrote.

"You have to pick him up at four every day," her mother informed her. Shannon rolled her eyes but agreed. "Okay," her mother added getting up. "Joseph and I are going to his mother's house for a while. Don't let Jay stay up too late; we'll be back by midnight." She reached the top of the stairs and yelled down to Jay, who was teaching Oliver how to play air hockey, "Jay, Daddy and I are going out. We'll be back late, go to bed when your sister tells you to!"

'He's not my brother,' Shannon wrote, but her mother ignored her. It was easy to do that when she didn't talk. Shannon's parents left and she went out back and sat on her swing set that no one ever used anymore. She always came out here to think and be alone, and everyone knew not to disturb her. Everyone, that is, except Oliver.

"Hey, Shannon," he said, coming up behind her.

She jumped and turned around, looking annoyed.

"Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to scare you." She shrugged. "So is there a reason you don't talk?" he asked. She nodded. Then she summoned her notebook and wrote, 'I don't like to talk about it though.' "I understand," Oliver said, nodding. They sat in silence for a while, which drove Oliver mad but Shannon was perfectly happy with. "I uh, like your blue hair," he said after a while.

'I could do the same to yours,' she wrote, smirking.

"Team pride?" he asked. She nodded. "Cool! Before the first game, okay?" She smiled. She handed her notebook to Oliver, and waved her wand so she didn't have to write everything she wanted to say. 'Why are you out here?' it said.

"Your brother was kicking my arse at air hockey, so I came."

'He beats me all the time too. But he's no match for me at Knock-Hockey.'

"What's that?"

'Basically, there's this wooden board with two blocks on it, being used for the goalie, which is like Keeper in Quidditch. Then there are two flat holes on each side for the goals. You get this plastic stick and have to hit the wooden puck into the hole, basically,' she magically wrote on the notebook.

"That sounds like fun," Oliver said.

'It is. We should go down and play,' she wrote.

They went down to the basement and Shannon got out the Knock-Hockey table. Oliver was good at blocking her shots but not as good at scoring, so after about five minutes, the game was still going on, even though they were only playing to five points. Finally Shannon did something called a deke and scored on Oliver, making the score 5-1. Shannon smirked.

"So I'm not good at using the hockey stick," Oliver defended himself. "I'm better with my hands."

Shannon's look said, 'Oh really?'

"Not like that," he laughed. "Well, maybe," he amended. "Girls used to flock me at Hogwarts. Although maybe it was my status as Quidditch captain. Did you play on a school team?"

She shook her head. 'I was homeschooled,' she wrote. 'But my mom used to be on the Holyhead Harpies when she was younger and taught me how to play.'

"That's cool," Oliver said. "Your mum's actually really nice." Shannon nodded.

'Joseph's not as nice though,' she wrote.

"He didn't seem it. You seemed almost afraid of him when you gave him that look and Jay told on you."

'No, not afraid. Just don't want to get on his bad side. I've never seen it firsthand, but I hear he can be nasty to the people he doesn't like. And since I stopped talking, he hasn't seemed to like me much.'

"That's not fair. I'm sure you had a perfectly good reason for not talking." It was true that Oliver was trying to trick her into telling why she stopped talking, but Shannon didn't fall for it.

'Maybe it isn't,' she wrote. 'But if I don't want to talk, why should anyone make me?' she wrote, then, 'Can you yell up to my brother and tell him to go to bed? His bedtime is 9 but I let him stay up another half hour. In return, he doesn't bug me as much. We have a weird relationship.'

Oliver did as she told, then came back over to sit next to her. Shannon had put away the game they had played. They sat in a bit more comfortable silence, in which Oliver began to notice things about her. Like how she absently played with the blue in her hair while staring off at nothing in particular, or how she always looked so sad, like she was reminiscing about old times. Oliver wondered what she was thinking about. He watched as she took a strand of her hair and tied it in a loose knot which came out when she let go.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked after a while.

'Nothing in particular,' she wrote. 'Stuff.'

"What kind of stuff?" he asked. She looked at him, and he backtracked. "You don't have to say." She smiled. He moved closer to her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, a comforting gesture. She pulled away, misunderstanding. "Sorry," he said. "You're pretty," he added. Her jaw clenched and she stood up and went upstairs. "I'm sorry!" he repeated, calling up after her, but she didn't come back. "Idiot!" he muttered to himself. He couldn't help but wonder why she was so resistant to everything, but he figured she'd tell him over time. He just had to give her time.

o.O.o

The next day, the two Quidditch players both woke up to an empty house. Jay was at Molly's house, and Ana and Joseph were both at work. Shannon came downstairs at 8 in the morning, completely awake. Oliver, on the other hand, stumbled, tired, out of bed.

"Why are you so happy?" he grumbled.

'I'm always up early,' she wrote. 'Even though I didn't get to sleep 'til about 2 in the morning.'

"That's about six hours of sleep," Oliver protested.

'Five,' she corrected. 'I got up an hour ago. I was just being lazy until now. If you're so tired, go back to bed.'

"I can't. Quidditch practice at 9, remember?"

'Oh, I remember.' She smirked as the words appeared on the paper.

"Oh, so you're trying to get me to miss practice? I'll have you know, I have never missed a Quidditch practice in my life. And how many have you missed in yours?"

'Six,' she wrote begrudgingly. 'And one game. All at the same time.'

"Why?" he asked, but she just opened the fridge and started making breakfast. Or rather, waved her wand, and breakfast made itself. Magic made everything easier.

'Johnny's orders.' The words finally appeared on the paper. 'Long story, I'll bore you with it later.'

"I wouldn't be bored hearing a story from you," he protested, but she didn't tell the story. He didn't know then, but he would never hear the story from her; her parents, however, were another story.

"So can we apparate from right here in this house, or do we have to go to a certain location?" Oliver asked, changing the subject.

'From a certain location. I'll show you when we are ready to go.'

Breakfast was good, Oliver had to admit. Shannon made eggs and turkey bacon, but she just ate cereal.

"Why the special menu?" Oliver asked.

'Vegan,' she wrote. 'I made that breakfast for you, that alright?'

"Sure, I guess," he said. When he finished, he cleared his place, and Shannon did the same with hers. "Ready to go?" he asked, and she nodded. "Then lead the way!"

And the two headed off to their first Quidditch practice.


End file.
